Only in Boston
by Lindy
Summary: When Luka and Carter go to Boston, they learn to cope with life... when a few unexpected side trips.
1. Only In Boston -- Chapter 1

This is a different fic than what is usually posted here. It takes place in the seventh season, after Carter's rehab. I don't own these characters... but dangit, I wish I did...  
  
Title: Only in Boston (part 1)  
Author: Lindy  
  
"See ya, John." Kerry waved as Dr. John Carter walked towards the exit.   
  
"Bye Dr. Weaver!" Carter smiled for the first time in months. His vacation time had finally arrived, and he had earned it. Two weeks of trauma-free vacation time. Carter beamed at the thought of it.  
  
"Hey, Carter." The Croatian accent cut him off from the exit. Carter turned around.  
  
"Luka..." Carter turned around and nodded at Luka. "Something I can help you with?"  
  
"I heard you were off for the next few days." Luka said to him.   
  
Carter smiled and nodded. "A couple weeks is more like it." He grinned.   
  
Luka started to walk out with him. "Going anywhere?" His thick Croatian accent made Carter smile, then made him wonder exactly why Luka wanted to know.  
  
"No, not really." Carter turned to Luka. "But I don't care how many traumas come through this ER in the next few weeks." He jokingly eyed the Croatian. "Don't even think about calling me."   
  
Luka smiled and laughed to himself. "No, that wasn't what I wanted to talk to you about." He paused as a team of paramedics passed by with a trauma. "There's a place off a harbor, in Boston, a pier. A patient of mine had a boat there, and I decided to rend it off of him."  
  
"So why are you telling me this?"  
  
"I was wondering if maybe you'd like to come and spend a few days with me on the boat. Off the coast." Luka looked to see Carter's reaction.  
  
"I don't know... I'm not really a boat person..." Carter started doubtfully.  
  
"Carter..." The Croatian rolled his eyes. "I've heard all the yachting stories. If you don't want to go-"  
  
"No, no, that's not it." Carter thought about it as he walked to the end of the hall. "A boat, eh?..."  
  
"A big boat," Luka said. Carter laughed, finding Luka's accent mixed with the sentence humorous.  
  
"Well..." He looked at Luka. "Why not. When should I meet you?.. Where should I meet you?"  
  
"A week from today, it's at the Fisherman's Pier. It's across the bay from Quincy Market." Carter took out a notepad and a pen. "Here's the number of the boat, call me when your plane lands." He handed the slip of paper to Carter.  
  
Carter looked at it and stuck it in his pocket. "Sounds like fun." He smiled. "I'll see you then, Luka."   
  
"Yes, good-bye Carter." Luka watched John go, and then walked back into the ER.  
  
Carter hesitated, then turned around and watched Luka walk the other way. He had wanted some time alone, just time to himself. But then again... besides the rehab, he hadn't really spent a lot of social time with his friends. Especially not since the incident with Lucy...  
  
But that was behind him now. He was going to start over again. "And there's no better place to start over than in Boston..." Carter smiled to himself and carried on homeward.  
  
  
A week later, Boston International Airport.  
  
People were swarming everywhere, Carter wondered exactly how anyone could figure out where their gate was located. He breathed in the air, noticing it was a lot cleaner than Chicago's.   
  
He looked around for an empty seat in the waiting area, but couldn't find one. Deciding to stand instead, Carter picked up his cell phone, and, after rummaging through both coat pockets, found the slip of paper with the boat number on it. He dialed and waited for someone to pick up.  
  
"Hello?" The thick Croatian accent eased Carter's plane anxiety and stress from the ride to Boston.   
  
"Luka? It's John. I'm in Boston!"  
  
"Yes, you are. Do you want me to come get you?"  
  
"Wait a second, you said Quincy Market?"  
  
"Yes, across the street. Fisherman's Pier. I'll meet you at the entrance, okay?"  
  
"Right, Fisherman's Pier. I'll call a cab, I'll meet you there in a little bit." Carter shut the receiver and placed the phone back in his coat pocket. Taking a deep breath, he beat his way through the crowd and out to the street, calling himself a cab.  
  
  
  
"Wow, this city's big..." Carter said, getting out of the cab. He shook Luka's hand, not making eye contact yet, for the reason of still staring at the beautiful city.  
  
"It's pretty, isn't it?" Luka asked.  
  
"Well, I guess it's sort of a funny thing to awe over," Carter said, grinning at the Croatian. "I mean, we are from Chicago..."  
  
"I think this is beautiful. Especially at night." Luka watched John's gaze, smiling softly. "Come on, I'll show you the boat." John nodded, and, picking up his suitcase, followed Luka to down the strip.  
  
  
"Ah..." Carter flopped down on the bottom bunk. "Settled in at last..."   
  
"Sure, give the Croatian the top," Luka grumbled jokingly. Carter laughed as he watched Luka climb up the ladder to the top bunk.   
  
There was silence for a moment. Carter let his heart beat slower as he finally relaxed. "Luka?" He said, breaking the silence.  
  
"Yeah, Carter?"  
  
"Why'd you come to Boston?"  
  
Silence. Carter patiently waited a response. "I suppose..." Luka trailed off. "I'm not sure. I needed... let me think." Carter waited while Luka sorta for the words in English. "I heard Dr. Benton say it once. He said, 'I need time with the guys.' That's what I needed..."  
  
Carter smiled to himself. He'd never heard Luka say something like that before, he didn't really talk about his friends. Or his family, for that matter, but that was beside the point. Here they were: two grown men spending a week on a boat, like it was one big guy sleepover. Just like when he was a kid...  
  
"You miss Carol?..." Carter half asked, half stated.   
  
"Yeah." Came the reply. "That's it mainly." Carter heard a laugh from above. "I guess you never expected for me to ask you to come here, eh, Carter?"  
  
Carter laughed. "Well, it was a little unexpected."  
  
"Better than two weeks by yourself. And don't tell me you weren't going to, because I know you would've slipped back into Carter hooddom."  
  
"Hoo... Hooddom, Luka?" Carter wondered what the heck Luka meant, but got the point.  
  
"Some guy said it on the street. 'The feller's in the hood.' I just assumed..." Carter heard more laughs from the Croatian. "I'll just stop with things I hear people say in the streets."   
  
They both laughed. Carter turned his head over and looked out at the night, the moon casting a dim light upon the city, and the stars illustrating its glory above. A few lights were left on in some of the buildings, but most had gone out.  
  
"It's pretty, isn't it?" Luka said again.  
  
"Yeah..." Carter repeated, starting to drift off. "She's beautiful..."  



	2. You Say You Wanna Revolution? -- Chapter...

This is the second part of my short story "Only in Boston." Again, this is very different from regular fanfiction. At least my style of writing. Also, unfortunately for myself, I don't own the idea or people or contracts or whatever a disclaimer is supposed to hold of the cast of ER... but I wish I did... *sniffle*  
  
Only in Boston - part two  
By Lindy  
"Revolution"  
  
"So, Carol and I never really amounted to anything..." Luka Kovac put his cup of tea down. "It was obvious we weren't getting anywhere."  
  
"At least you've gotten somewhere." John Carter said, smirking at Luka's last sentence. He glanced out at the downtown world of Boston. The city was particularly alive this morning; while the streets didn't seem to be as crowded as the sidewalks, the people were friendly, and the sounds of side-corner musicians never faded. Cafes, shops, and restaurants lined the sidewalk and made one solid block of commerce.  
  
"What do you mean?" Luka asked, leaning back in the booth. "Haven't you ever gotten somewhere with a woman?"  
  
"Yeah, I guess so..." Carter scratched his neck, attempting to remember the few meaningful relationships. "College and high school weren't really anything, I was too young to care about 'meaningful'..."  
  
"What about after that?" Luka asked.  
  
Carter thought. "Harper Tracey." The edges of Carter's lips curled upwards at the very remembrance of the girl. "That was interesting..."   
  
"Why?" Luka asked.  
  
"We had sex almost every night." Carter looked at Luka and grinned evilly. The Croatian just shook his head and laughed. "I'm not kidding, but apparently the idea was more of her than me, cause the month before she left she slept with Doug Ross." Carter waited for Luka's reaction.  
  
Luka almost spit out his tea. He set the cup down on the counter. "Doug Ross?" He looked at Carter hard. "As in Carol's Doug?"  
  
John nodded. "I don't think they were together at the time, though..."   
  
Luka shook his head, and appeared to be in disapproval of the whole conversation, but John couldn't really tell. "So, anyway, what time are we taking the boat out today?"  
  
"Probably about two. I wanted to go into downtown Boston first." Luka looked out the coffee shop window. "It's so much more friendlier than Chicago."  
  
"Yeah..." Carter said, without much behind it. "I guess so..." He hadn't really noticed it too much, but Luka made a valid point. Chicago was dirty, you couldn't trust anyone, and no one else trusted you. In other words, depending on the kind of person you were, Chicago could be hard and unforgiving.   
  
"Well, shall we?" Luka asked, getting out his wallet to pay for the coffees.  
  
"Shall we what?" Carter got out his wallet and put a tip down for the waitress.  
  
"Go look at the rest of Boston?"  
  
"Oh, right. Okay," Carter said looking at his watch, "but I'm not real sure about what you think you're going to find here that's not in Chicago." Carter started walking to the door. "Besides the Celtics, of course."  
  
Luka gave him an inquisitive look. "The what?"   
  
"Nevermind.." Carter chuckled an airy laugh as he pushed open the door, heading out on to the sidewalk of downtown Boston.  
  
  
  
  
"So, what do you think so far?" Luka said, looking at the church.   
  
"I think that's a really big church." Carter scratched his chin. What was the point of this again?  
  
"I know," Luka said, "but isn't it pretty?" Carter glanced over at his Croatian pal. This was the fifth church they had been to in the past hour, and so far Luka had called them all 'pretty.' Carter refrained from a sigh, and raised his eyebrows at the church.   
  
"Well..." he said after a while. "It's... really old."   
  
"Carter."  
  
"Well, you gotta give the thing some credit, I mean, it's been standing for a couple hundred years!"  
  
Luka sighed, a little ungrateful of Carter's critique, and also a little bit tired of getting nowhere. He shifted.  
  
"Luka..." Carter started to say. He paused, not wanting to offend his friend. "It's not that I don't like the churches, I do. But I grew up with stained glass windows and shag carpet in my grandmother's house-"  
  
"Mansion." Luka said, a little wryly.  
  
"Mansion..." Carter gave it to him and shrugged. "And there are churches in Chicago just like these."  
  
"Not exactly like them," Luka said, "they're all different."  
  
"I know, I know..." Carter said. He looked around. "But I'll tell you what you can't get in Chicago." He looked up a rather tall building, putting his hand across his forehead to block the sun from his eyes. Carter stood there, looking up at the top of this building.  
  
Luka tried to follow his gaze. "What?" he asked.  
  
"A scenic view." Carter looked over to his friend, a grin on his face. "C'mon!"  
  
  
  
  
Luka looked up at the tall building. The silver skyscraper shined brightly, and Luka had to shield his eyes from the reflection of the ever-lingering sun against it. "Who's John Hancock?" Luka asked, staring up at it.  
  
"Some guy from the Revolution." Carter shrugged, hands in his pockets as he gazed up at it as well. "I've always wanted to come here... but I never end up going to the Boston conferences. They're all surgical committees anyway..."  
  
"Revolution, eh?" Luka asked, running across the street alongside Carter, waving a thank you to a halting car. He took in a deep breath, smiling into his coat. "I've only read about it... sounds so exciting."  
  
"Yeah, I guess!" Carter laughed. "I don't know if anyone's still revved up about it though, it's been over for a couple hundred years..." He chuckled as he saw the sheepish grin on Luka's face form. He stepped casually into the building, going through the revolving door.   
  
"That's interesting," Luka said as the door opened into the building.  
  
"What? No revolving doors in Croatia?" Carter joked. Luka rolled his eyes, shaking his head slightly. "Well, Kovac my friend, it's the simple things in life, such as revolving doors, that make life so much more fun than it's supposed to be."  
  
"They beat the system, eh?" he asked, a happy grin appearing over the man's face.  
  
Carter laughed, looking around the lobby. "Yeah, they beat the system. So do you want to take the stairs?"  
  
"Yeah, right..." The Croatian's sarcasm made Carter's smile bigger. "There must be forty some flights..." he nodded to the elevator. "Unless you want to get some exercise, of course."  
  
"No, really. The walk across the street does it for me." Carter said wryly, getting into the elevator, plugging in the top floor to the panel as the Croatian joined beside him. "I hope you're not afraid of heights... cause it's a long way down." He flashed a mischievous grin to his dark-haired friend.  
  
  
  
"Carter, look! Oh, we have to go there!" Luka Kovac gazed out over Massachusetts Bay. "It says that Paul Reveries house? No, Reveeeeeeere... Paul Revere, his house. Oh, and the cemetery! Carter?" He turned around.  
  
"Oh...." Carter held his stomach kneeling over a trash can. Vomit had flood to his lungs almost as fast as he had seen the height he had climbed. He clutched the ground. "I'm gonna be okay...." He started to get up, then overcome by another wave of nausea, resumed his position quickly on the floor.  
  
"Just keep your head between your-" Luka was diverted by a small shop. "Look, live fish!" Luka pointed to a fish tank holding small critters from the bay.  
  
"Oh, GOD!" Carter stuck his head into the garbage can again, making the ever suspecting garbles and spews.  
  
Luka watched for a moment, then resumed him position of looking over the city. It was truly a beautiful city; it was clean, it was historical... it was so friendly. "Hey, Carter?" he asked, when Carter had indicated he was done vomiting by the spitting sounds emanating from behind him.  
  
"Yeah, Kovac?" he asked, wiping his mouth off and starting to get up.  
  
"What's that children's show? With the guy who lives on the street with puppets?"  
  
Carter blinked up at him, looking hard. "Mr. Roger's Neighborhood?"  
  
Luka snapped his fingers. "That's it!" His accent indicated his pleasure with the answer, and he turned back to the window. "Boston is Mr. Roger's neighborhood."  
  
Carter looked at Luka for a minute, then back to the trash can. "Incredible..." he sighed, standing up finally. "Can we go?"  
  
"You wanted to come up here!... actually, I'm sort of hungry. How about we go out for lunch?"  
  
Carter nodded. "Yeah, just..." He motioned to the elevator. "Let's get on solid ground before we talk about food..."  
  
Luka nodded, deciding to give Carter a break. He took one last, long look out at the city, sighed to himself, and then accompanied Carter to the elevator. Luke smiled as he hit the button. "You know, I can't wait to be out on the waves with the boat."  
  
Carter's face turned pale. "Don't say waves..." he groaned, leaning against the elevator's wall as the doors shut.  
  
  
  
"Do you know any places we can go?" Luka said as he stepped out of the John Hancock Building.   
  
Carter thought hard, relishing the feel of cool air on his face, and solid ground under his feet. "Maybe..." He rubbed the side of his face, thinking to himself. "You know what," he said, looking up at Luka, "There is a little place where everybody knows your name... and they're always glad you came."  
  
Luka looked at him like he was crazy. "Huh? What are you talking about?"  
  
Carter grinned. "I'll show you." He started walking down the street, Luka reluctant to follow. "C'mon!" John stuck his hands back into his pockets and began to walk down the streets of Boston, smiling all the while, with Luka trailing slowly behind him.  
  
((If anybody knows where they're going, or has any clue, e-mail me at PiecesOfYou@aol.com! I'd like to know if anyone gets the drift *g*))


End file.
